Foot rest for accelerator pedals



F. n. HARPER. FOOT REST FOR ACCELERATOR PEDALS.

Patented 0m 3 APPLICATION FILED APR. 26, 1921.

INVEN TOR.

latcnted Oct. 3, 1922.

STATES FREEMAN R. HARPER, 0F WGBURN, MASSACHUSETTS.

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Application filed April 26, 1921. Serial No. 454,571.

T 0 all whom it may condom.

Be it known that I, FREEMAN R. HARPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at \Voburn, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Foot Rests for Accelerator Pedals, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to foot rests for supporting the foot of an operator of an automobile while driving, in such fashion as to permit him to control the accelerator pedal or button of the machine, to feed gasoline to the motor as desired.

An object of the invention is to provide a foot rest which will support the foot of the operator without muscular effort upon the part of the operator, by providing a rest for the full length of the foot, so supported that the motion of the moving machine cannot cause longitudinal motion of the foot rest nor require the operator to exercise any particular muscular control of the foot to provide against such contingency.

Another object is to provide a foot rest which will not move in a direction to affect the gasoline feed, by pressure upon the accelerator button, without purposeful action by the operator.

Another object is to provide a foot rest in which when the operator desires to effect the depression of the accelerator button, the foot of the operator is shifted or carried bodily over the button.

Another object is to provide a foot rest which can be demounted, when desired, with a minimum of labor.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of my foot rest;

Figure 2 is a cross-section on line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a cross-section on line 33 of Figure 1;

Figure 4: is a plan view; and

Figure 5 shows the foot rest as mounted, in use.

The main member 1 of my foot rest is shaped like the sole of a shoe, with a heel part and a sole part. A portion of the sole part is cut away at 11 to permit of a close juxtaposition of the member 1 and the accelerator pedal 2. The foot rest is mounted upon a pair of standards 3, secured upon the foot board, beneath the heel part and the sole part of the foot rest, respectively, with which standards are engaged two pivot arms 12 and 13, pivotally secured to the standards, preferably, by a single pivot pin 31, passing through apertures 12 and 13" in the arms 12 and 13 respectively.

Opposite the cut away portion 11 of the sole part of the foot rest, and upon the underside of the foot rest is secured, preferably integrally, a counterweight 14, and upon the pivot arms 12 and 13 are secured small stop members 12 and 13 The counterweight 14 tends constantly to turn the foot rest on its pivot away from the accelerator button 2, until the stops 12 and 13 contact with the standard 3, which is when the crosswise surface of the foot rest is in the same plane as the crosswise surface of the floor board of the automobile. In other words, the foot rest tends to a normal position, under the urge of the counterweight, ready to receive the foot of operator.

It will be observed that the pivot pin 31 is parallel with the longitudinal axis of the automobile, and that the bearing apertures of the pivot arms are likewise so disposed.

It will also be observed that the pivot arms 12 and 13 are of unequal length, arm 12, which is beneath the sole part of the foot rest being longer than arm 13, beneath the heel part of the foot rest.

The operation is as follows: The foot rest being secured in place with the accelerator button occupying a position within or near to the cut away portion 11 of the foot rest, the operator places his foot upon the foot rest, which is capable of motion in only one direction, namely, it can be swung upon its pivots, so that the side of the foot rest toward the accelerator button, is depressed, that is it can turn only in a direction transverse to the length of the car. In this operation the unequal length of the arms 12 and 13, causes the sole part of the foot rest to shift bodily, transversely of the car, carrying the ball of the foot of the operator over the accelerator button. To facilitate this bodily shift of the forward part of the foot rest, 1 preferably make the aperture 13* a rather loose fit for the pivot pin 31.

The above described motion cannot be caused accidentally by the normal longitudinal or fore and aft shocks and jounces of the car in motion, since the foot rest has no capacity for motion in such directions, but only for tilting and shifting sidewise, and such sidewise tilting and shifting can respectively to sustain the foot rest above 10 the level of the floor boards; a sto fibetween the foot rest and the pivot members to limit the transverse rotation of the foot rest beyond the horizontal in one direction.

Signed at Boston, Mass. this twenty-third 16 day of April, 1921.

FREEMAN R. HARPER. 

